Iverson
by Shastelly
Summary: Vilified in many a fanfiction, how do we marry the way he treated our favorite boy in blue with the man in season 7? First person Iverson story Read and Review please! updated with minor edit


Title: Iverson

Summary: Vilified in many a fanfiction, how do we marry the way he treated our favorite boy in blue with the man in season 7? First person Iverson story - this is a real stretch for me, so hope it turns out Read and Review please!

Rating: K+

* * *

 **"Mitch, come back to bed, dear." My wife called from the bedroom, her voice groggy with sleep.**

 **"I will soon, Grace." I couldn't make my mind rest. It was just like that night so long ago, when I had found something out. Something I didn't know what to do with.**

* * *

My star student, my prodigy, my greatest success was sick. He wasn't showing symptoms yet, but they would come. He had maybe three years left before it would become noticeable to everyone.

It wasn't fair. Shiro was the greatest pilot I had ever had the honor of training. He was a natural. His talent flowed through him like water. He was calm and assured. He held himself with a maturity well beyond his years. It was that combined with his ability that had allowed me to get him moved through the system so quickly. I personally trained him and helped him progress from level to level at an accelerated pace.

My gut churned. I should report him. I really should, but he had come to me. He had asked me not to say anything. He had begged. This was his last chance at a mission. It would be his only chance given how long it would take to get to Kerberos and back. He asked me to let him have this and I understood. I understood how he felt this need to prove himself. It was one thing to be the poster child for the Garrison the picture of the perfect pilot, but he had never been on a mission like the one to Kerberos. No one had; we had never been out that far. He wanted to be able to go somewhere no one had been. He wanted to be an explorer. It was what he had wanted from the first day he signed into the Garrison. The starry eyed young man that had looked into my face and told me calmly that he was going to be the greatest explorer on Earth.

I knew what he wanted, but I am afraid for him, and I am afraid I am making the wrong decision for the wrong reasons. Because when he succeeds I succeed. When he explores I explore, because I trained him. I helped form him and while I never had the opportunity to go out there beyond the farthest edges of our known space, he could.

* * *

I remembered how I felt when I lost my eye. The crash that took it and the life of my crew. It had been a mechanical failure. One of the engines had gone out and I had fought the stick, I had pulled with all of my strength, and it had not been enough. We had plowed into the desert hard. The ship was torn to pieces. Most of the crew was killed on impact. Myself and my engineer survived long enough to be pulled from the wreckage. Hammond died three days later, he never even woke to say goodbye to his young wife. I spent three months in the hospital and years in rehab. My Grace, she stayed with me the entire time and I recovered, but my dream of exploring died. Explorers need both eyes.

It was Grace that reminded me that new dreams are born when old ones die. She is a teacher in a primary school. She drug me to class one day to introduce me to, as she called them, the future. Those bright eyes stared at me with awe. They had so many questions and so many ideas of what it would mean to go into space. One particularly bright and perceptive young man had walked up to me after class. He had asked a lot of questions about flying and I could see a future pilot in him.

"Um…sir…how…I mean…why do you only have one eye?" he asked innocently.

"I lost it in an accident. Flying is dangerous sometimes. Sometimes the things we love come with great risk." I looked at him seriously. If he was to grow into a pilot someday it was only fair he knew what risk came with it.

"If you knew you were going to lose it, before it happened, would you have still become a pilot?" his serious little face peered up at me as he pushed his glasses up on his nose with one finger.

I had to take a moment to consider his question. Would I have? Knowing what I would lose, knowing the pain I would endure, would I do it all over again. And the answer wasn't nearly as hard as I had thought it would be.

"Yes, it's who I am. What's your name young man?"

"Adam. Adam West."

* * *

The next day I reported him to the Admiral. He could find a new dream, but only if he lived. I wouldn't let my own dreams of exploring be the reason he died in space.

"Shiro, you don't have to go on this mission. Life goes on. Stay here. Live your life with Adam, become a teacher. You are good with the kids." I argued with him. He didn't listen. He couldn't let go of his dream and so he went to Commander Holt. And Sam Holt supported him and nothing I said mattered once he had that backing.

The day the report came in that we had lost contact with the Kerberos mission, I went home and drank myself to sleep. The day they reported it was pilot error, I just knew it was because of his illness. And I knew without a doubt that I had failed him. I should have found a way to show him that he didn't have to go to be a pilot, that he didn't have to go to live his dream. Somehow I couldn't help him see a different path and I let him take a path that lead to his death.

I vowed that day that I would never let another student of mine down. I would make sure that they did not follow the wrong path. I would make sure they were strong enough, even if I had to be harder on them. Even if I had to break them down to be sure they could handle it. I would be the bad guy if that's what it took.

So I threw the Kerberos mission in Keith's face and I kicked him out when he broke and punched me. His temper would have been a problem in space. He would have gotten himself killed, just like Shiro had. I tracked down Katie Holt and kicked her out of the Garrison every chance I could, she was soft like her father and not tough enough for space. I shredded that McClain kid when he crashed the simulator over and over again. He wasn't good enough to make it out there.

I made mistake after mistake.

* * *

Then all of the sudden Shiro was back, fallen out of the sky. He didn't die. It wasn't pilot error. I had been so wrong. And before I even had a chance to process what had happened Keith rescued him and they all disappeared in that blue lion ship.

I knew they were going to make it. Despite my mistakes they were going to make it. I hadn't dealt with losing Shiro and I had used my anger against all of them.

I have made so many mistakes in my life. That night I came home and sat down with Grace and cried. Yes, I cried. It is okay for men to do that. From then on I made it my mission to make it up to them. Make it up to the ones I had let down - to Shiro, Matt, Sam, Keith, Lance, Katie, and even Hunk. When the chance came to work on the project with the alien technology came up I jumped on it. I pushed and pulled. I got the best pilots for the program, I don't care if they were young, they were the best. I trained them. I pushed for new technology, new training for the younger cadets. I was going to be ready.

* * *

 **"Mitch," Grace came up behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist. "I thought you were coming to bed."**

 **"I am. I just have a lot on my mind."**

 **"Top secret?" she teased.**

 **"Actually yes, but then you have clearance, right?" I smiled at her reflection I could see in the window in front of me. She was my rock, five foot nothing, tough as nails, and I had never withheld information from her, rules or no rules.**

 **"You know you can tell me anything." She squeezed her arms tight around me.**

 **"Sam Holt arrived back on Earth today."**

Author's notes: So they only give us the W in the show. I couldn't resist - after all always be yourself unless you can be batman :). Also I gave Iverson a wife…why not.


End file.
